March Madness began this week and I hope Michigan goes far this year. I figured I would share a few of my favorites to really share your Wolverine spirit (and I’m sure you could find these in your favorite college colors as well).

This week’s wine is Leelanau Cellar’s Witches Brew. Leelanau is a Michigan winery started in 1974 in Northern Michigan by the Jacobson family. Leelanau (Lee-La-Naw) is an Indian word meaning “Delight of Life.” They also have a tasting room outside of Traverse City which I’ve previously visited.

Witches Brew is the perfect fall wine. It’s a red blend enhanced with cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and other natural spices.

Witches Brew is what you would call a mulled wine. A red wine that has been warmed and spiced. You heat it up on your stove and serve it warm. You can also add fun things like cloves, cinnamon sticks or orange zest. Really anything goes. Mulled wine dates back to 1420 in Germany where they call it Gluhwein (roughly translated to “glow wine.” There have even been documented mulled wines as far back as ancient Rome.

Have you tried Witches Brew yet? It’s perfect for a tailgate or any outdoor event. I would love to hear what you think about it.

I started a Summer Bucket List for the first time this year and I only did so-so at it. For fall, I learned that you have to plan everything out in advance or you won’t make it a priority so that is exactly what I am going to do for fall. In Michigan fall is so much fun with activities like Michigan football, apple orchards, cider mills, fall colors and the changing seasons. I can’t wait to get moving on these activities and enjoy this season as much as we can!

As promised, here is my next Throwback Thursday post on our engagement party. You can read our engagement story here. Since I started this blog two years after our wedding I didn’t get to share all of these fun party details with you. Our engagement party was one of my favorite events in our wedding extravaganza. Since we had planned to have a long 32 month engagement we decided to host an engagement party to share our excitement with our friends and family. Since I had grand plans of a formal wedding, we decided to have a casual engagement party with a Michigan tailgate theme.

We hosted the party in my parent’s backyard with a big outdoor tent on one of Michigan’s away games in October. Every year Michigan has a theme for the season and in 2009 it was “All in for Michigan.” The official student shirt is designed with this theme and it happened to include a Big House Pledge:

We took this theme and made our party “All in for John and Liz” and re-wrote the big house pledge to suit our own purposes in our invitation:

John and I both wore our Michigan shirts to the party:

We had a great spread in the dining room and then a big tent out in the backyard for tailgating fun. And yes, I did wrap all of those utensils up in napkins and still had some in my basement until the big flood last year.

Here are some of the other fun pictures from the party:

One of our junior bridesmaids, Bella

Our cake!

John’s mom got us wedding themed ornaments from Frankenmuth

The flower girl, Kayla!

I loved writing this post, it brought back so many good memories. Even though Michigan lost to Iowa that night, I still felt like I had won the jackpot (if you couldn’t tell from my permagrin in these pictures).

Let me know what other throwbacks you would like to see. I’m hoping to do one every month. Did you have an engagement party? What was your theme?

We drove for about three hours and checked into The Harbor Grand, a full-service boutique hotel in New Buffalo, MI. When we arrived, I was surprised by how small the hotel was, which I loved! There are only 54 rooms, which make it the perfect place to stay. Jen and I got a room with an amazing balcony view! I bet this looks even more beautiful once everything has bloomed! The other feature that really stuck out to me was how updated the bathrooms were, they had whirlpool tubs and a stand up shower!

After we checked in, we headed out for Part 1 of our wine tour which I will recap in a separate post. We came back to the hotel around 5:30 p.m. for drinks and appetizers in The Terrace Room at the hotel. I had a lot of fun with this because the Terrace Room has a rustic, Italian theme to it, complete with a waterfront view and a fireplace. We gathered around the fireplace for some appetizers, which were delicious!

I had fun trying a few of the drinks including this delightful Lemon Raspberry Fizz, with one of my favorite ingredients…Limoncello!

If we would have stayed after dark, you can order a smores kit and take that outside to make them over a real campfire. I thought that was a fun touch! We also had a lovely chat with the owner which I loved because you could tell he had a real passion for hospitality. New Buffalo is a great destination as it is halfway between metro Detroit and Chicago. It makes the perfect getaway with a little something for everyone.

Since we didn’t do so well at the casino, Jen and I decided to head back to the hotel and sample the movie and ice cream selection. One of the fun parts about The Harbor Grand is they offer a huge list of movies that you can rent as well as 24-hours of Ben & Jerry’s…yes you heard that correctly. We decided on Mean Girls and Chubby Hubby!

The next morning, we were treated to a lovely breakfast in bed care package outside our door. It came complete with mimosas for the perfect girl’s weekend!

We had such a great time at The Harbor Grand and I would love to bring John back with me next time. He would have loved it! Next time I would love to make this a long weekend and spend more time in New Buffalo. This could also be a fun stop on the way to or from Chicago. I am so glad that Deb and Renee tuned me into New Buffalo. I never would have thought to go there, but I can say with certainty that I will definitely be back soon!

Have you ever been to New Buffalo or stayed at The Harbor Grand? What was your experience like?

Disclosure: I was invited to participate in this hosted tour and will be provided with complimentary lodging. All opinions are my own.

Since it is #WineWednesday, I thought there was no better time to share with you that I’ve been invited to the Southwest Michigan Sip & Stroll wine tour this weekend! I had a big event at work and just started teaching again for the semester, so this couldn’t have come at a better time.

This is the first year for the Southwest Michigan Sip & Stroll weekend being hosted by Deb at Just Short of Crazy and Renee at What Mama Wants and I’m thrilled to help kick it off. Because it starts on Friday, I was able to take the day off of work and recruit one of my besties, Jen, to come along for the ride.

Our tour is kicking off on Friday, where we check into The Harbor Grand, a full-service boutique hotel in New Buffalo, MI.

We’ll be touring four wineries and The Chocolate Garden on Friday and Saturday before heading home. I can’t wait to try the Sticky Bun and Vanilla Rose truffles, which I hear pair perfectly with my favorite, Pinot Noir.

It’s that time of year again…where everyone goes crazy over college basketball, myself included! I personally root for the University of Michigan: Go Blue! I would love to hear what teams you are rooting for in the tournament. This is also the perfect excuse to shop for your favorite Michigan or college gear. Every time your team advances is another opportunity to show your school spirit. Here are a few of my favorite Michigan items (most of them you can customize to your school):

Slater Zorn offers a collection where you can pick your team’s colors and get tons of cute clothes and accessories to match. I am partial to this Suite Blouse ($175) because it would be a great transition from work to the bar.

Yankee Candles has a cool set of collegiate candles (unfortunately, no Wolverines candles yet) so I have to post a Spartan candle as an example. But you can choose your school and each has it’s own unique scent.

March Madness is the perfect time to wear collegiate inspired shoes since you aren’t tailgating in the mud. Ms. Mary Mac creates custom shoes for whatever university you hail from. She has two different styles that you could customize for your school:

John and I had a great time celebrating Labor Day this weekend by not working. On Friday night, we hit up the Arts, Beats & Eats festival in Royal Oak.

SmashMouth played at 8 p.m. and we figured we would go and check them out. I still remembered some of the songs from my high school days. Unfortunately, we didn’t stay too long after the first show because there was a freak monsoon and we had to retreat to the local watering hole.

John and I before the monsoon

On Saturday our big day had finally arrived, the first Michigan game of the season! Woo hoo! I had gotten great seats for John as part of his birthday present a few weeks ago. We love this time of year – tailgating and hanging out with all of our friends – all while watching Michigan kick some butt!

Enjoying the tailgate

You can check out my Five on Friday post for all of my Michigan gear. I have to give my husband credit for touching up this photo, he is my official blog photographer. It was a great game – Michigan won 59-9. John got some great pictures and was really excited to see some of the freshmen get some playing time.

We spent the rest of the weekend relaxing, grilling and having a great time. I’m so glad that college football is back and can’t wait for next weekend.

This was our last day in Nashville and we had some time to kill before heading to the airport. Since it was Memorial Day we thought a trip to Stones River National Battlefield would be appropriate.

Stones River National Battlefield commemorates a Civil War battlefield and National Cemetery near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The battle took place on New Year’s Eve in 1862 and was one of the bloodiest conflicts of the Civil War.

My husband took some amazing pictures from the battlefield and we even found the Michigan marker.

Stones River Cemetery

81,000 men fought at Stones River and there are more than 7,000 graves at the National Cemetery to recognize them.

Stones River Cemetery

There were 71 Michigan men who lost their lives at Stones River for the Union. Here is a link to the marker if you want to read more.

John at the Michigan Marker

The Slaughter Pen was a particularly gruesome part of the battle which you can read more about here.

The Slaughter Pen

Battlefield

This was a great way to spend Memorial Day and made me very thankful for the men and women that protect our country and freedom every day.